Triss writhed on the carpet for another few minutes before his senses started to acclimatise. He slowly got back up and stood with one knee on the floor as his complexion started to look as lifeless as his eyes.

Veles walked forward and gestured for Triss to take the dagger. He clutched it with both of his hands and stared at it for a moment. The tremors in his hands still hadn’t stopped but he felt an odd connection with the weapon in his hands.

It reminded him of the pain he had felt just a short while ago but he held it even tighter to try to understand what he was feeling. He finally stood back up on both feet. The dagger started to glow dimly as most of his senses returned to normal.

He felt the warm blood down on his face and the buzzing started to sound like words. His breaths were heavy. Tala was offering a napkin that Triss belatedly noticed.

He let go of one of his hands from the dagger to receive it and wipe down his face and neck. He still didn’t feel like letting the dagger go from the other hand, though, and gripped it tightly.

“Boy! Can you hear me or not?!” Veles shouted at Triss. Those were the first words that he managed to hear and understand after the awakening.

Triss nodded. He dropped the bloodied napkin on the floor.

“Can you speak?” Veles proceeded to question him further.

Triss coughed for a few minutes trying to form words. He struggled to voice out a few of them. “Little… bit…”

Veles grunted. Triss noticed that he was annoyed for some reason. In the next few moments, he regained his grip on reality and asked Veles a question.

“What did you do...?”

“It is a forced awakening. The Lightguard have a similar procedure to pass on the Luminary Class to prospects. But you never went through that, did you?” Veles asked.

“No… I’ve never felt… that,” Triss said with his voice still hoarse and trailing off.

“Can you describe what you just felt through for me?” Shaw asked.

Triss looked around and noticed that Shaw was writing something on a few pieces of parchment with a charcoal pen.

“Fucking horrible is what I felt…” Triss cursed.

“Something more descriptive would—”

“Just shut the fuck up, Shaw. Give him some time,” Tala cut him off.

“Sage advice,” Veles added.

Shaw grumbled. He didn’t want to admit to his fault in the matter.

“We will talk more once you are properly up for the task. Go and join the others, we still have some things to discuss,” Veles told Triss and gestured for him to give back the dagger.

“I don’t want to… Can I keep it?” Triss asked.

Veles scratched his head. “Hmm. That is a positive development. Alright, take it,” he said to Triss.

Triss nodded and slowly walked out. Tala closed the doors behind him and looked back at Veles and Shaw. “I’ve never seen such a botched awakening,” she told them.

“Considering the circumstances, I’m quite surprised that the process worked. His Will shouldn’t have been compatible,” Veles replied.

“Saying it worked is a bit much. He looked like he died a few times. Probably would have if he got rejected,” Tala said.

“Enough. We can look into any side effects later,” Veles ended the topic.

Triss fumbled around trying to find his way out. He’d gone to the basement by mistake and had to go looking for the exit once he finally made it to the ground floor. After trying to navigate the residence for around a quarter hour, he finally made it out and saw everyone else waiting with a four-wheeled wagon. He wasn’t noticed until he approached the group.

Sarva was the first to speak to him. “Hey, how did it—why the fuck is there blood on your face?!”

“The awakening hurt a lot more than you told me it would…” Triss muttered.

“Awakening? What? They just went ahead and did it? Right then and there?” Sarva started panicking and put his arms on Triss’ shoulders.

He poured in a tiny trickle of mana to check on Triss’ condition. “Okay, wow, you are definitely awakened now. But what’s up with the blood?!”

“Is that not normal?” Triss asked.

“No, it really isn’t,” Ueya said. “I just got a minor headache from mine.”

“Wash up, will you? Clot on your face isn’t the best look,” Sarva said and passed Triss a waterskin.

Triss nodded and splashed some water on his face and wiped the clot away with his hands. He handed the waterskin back and looked at what was on the wagon. He saw a few silver-lined wooden casks on them.

“What’s on the cart?” He asked.

“Mead and freshwater,” Bran replied. He was inspecting the barrels by knocking on them. “Mostly mead, though.”

Oakley walked up to Triss and inspected him for a quick moment. “What did they do to you, kid?” He asked Triss.

“Still figuring that out. Where are we going?” Triss deflected and changed the topic.

Oakley sighed. “A long way away. Three weeks by ship, I reckon,” he said.

Triss recalled that’s how he came to the Lightguard Academy in the first place. He was just a child back then, but that voyage was the last time he had interacted with his sister. His chest started welling up thinking about it, which served as a good distraction to ignore the harrowing experience from earlier. He still hadn’t processed most of the changes that had happened to him since he had gotten his Class.

“You look like you need a week’s worth of sleep. Also, what’s with the knife?” Sarva asked as he observed the dagger that Triss was holding.

“I don’t know, the… boss man used it somehow during the awakening,” Triss replied.

“That is super weird,” Sarva said.

“It was,” Triss said immediately after. “How are we moving the wagon?”

“Look at the handles. They’re coated with hardened earth. Bran and I will be responsible for that,” Oakley said.

“Oh, right. Earth Tempest. Do you think I can sit on it?” Triss asked.

“Should be fine, you look light enough. Probably better for you if you do, you look like death,” Oakley commented.

Triss nodded and climbed onto the back of the wagon. He placed the dagger up to his eye and peered at the distorted middle rung through it.

He saw the dome-like structure that covered the academy proper and the upper reaches of the castle inside the central rung. He gulped. He now recognised that he really was leaving the Lightguard for good.

The three Scholars stepped out of the residence a few minutes later. They walked ahead of everyone else as Oakley and Bran started ‘pulling’ the wagon.

Both of them gripped a handle each and poured their mana into the implements. Triss perceived a sort of tether between their hands and their respective handles, which pulled along the wagon. Ueya and Val were walking in the front with the rest but Sarva decided to walk with Triss from the back.

No one spoke for most of the short journey. The group reached the outer rung in about ten minutes. They received a few odd glances due to Triss sitting on the wagon with Lightguard colours but most guards who saw them were just glad that the Scholars were leaving.

Soon after, they came across the courtyard that led to the doghouse. Triss cowered away from looking at that place. Leaving the Lightguard was one thing, leaving that place on the other hand was a blessing no matter how he saw it. The side of his eye caught that a good portion of the courtyard a bit further away had been recently charred black.

“We’re almost out,” Sarva whispered. He could guess how Triss felt having seen the conditions in the doghouse only a day prior. Triss didn’t respond and just played with his new dagger like a newborn would with a toy. He diverted his attention from it only when the wagon briefly stopped and three Luminaries used their magic to lift up the portcullis. He felt that his Class somehow resonated slightly with the magic that he knew he could never use.

Triss walked with Sarva after that point. Just as the group had left the walls, Sarva asked Triss about something that he had mentioned earlier.

“So you were saying about an enemy lieutenant?”

“Huh?” The question broke Triss out of his trance. “Oh, right, look over there,” he pointed at a section of the tarnished wall at the edge of their view. It was the northern portion of the outer wall that looked significantly worse than the rest. It looked like a massive beast had bitten off the top portion, which was exactly what had happened.

“I knew that looked too horrible for just aged decay,” Sarva remarked. “What was it like to look at something like that?”

Triss began to describe the beast. “It was this two-headed lizard spider kind of thing. Everyone could see that thing’s maw breathing down fire that wall. The eyes and the flames, that was most of what we could see and even that was frightening enough… but the Lightbringers killed it so quickly before it could get in. Everything was so dark with the ashfall but when they attacked it, the entire city could see the light. The heads even fell down inside the walls, while the rest… Well outside of the city, probably.”

“Looks like they cleaned up the corpse,” Sarva said. “This isn’t your first time outside the walls?”

“They take us out for looks whenever there’s a low risk—looks at Luminaries slaughtering hordes of the Threat without quarter. And more looks at how many of the dogs died to the Threat the same way…” Triss muttered.

“If it’s worth anything, corpses are usually left without their rites for years on end in other battlefields,” Sarva tried to console his feelings a little.

“Only the dead Luminaries get their last rites. The rest of them are just burnt in a pile, can’t have the Threat getting more soldiers,” Triss said coldly. “At least we got to fight a few of the weaker strays back then.”

Sarva felt a bit awkward. He chose to remain silent as they trekked downhill to the harbour. It was a bit foggy at the sea, so they couldn’t see the distant fleet guarding the shores.

But they could spot their own vessel at that point.

“I’ve never… What in the World is that?” Triss asked after getting a good enough look at the Scholars’ ship.

“Insomnia,” Sarva replied.

A lone Luminary stood in front of the strange vessel ‘Insomnia’ without making any movements. It had been a little less than a day since he had been made to stand in solitude. His cape had been almost completely burnt off and a portion of his armour was singed black. But he hadn’t fought the Threat like one would assume from his appearance. He was standing there crying in humiliation and tensed up on seeing the Scholars arrive at the pier.

Randall wanted to scream but his voice was taken away. He wanted to kill all of them but didn’t stand a chance to do so. He tightened his grip on his halberd and hoped that the expedition would be a short one as the three Scholars had passed him to board the ship.

He followed them up the ramp, his movements stiff and tired. His legs ached with the weight of the armour, having forgotten to use magic to support his movements after a day’s exhaustion.

He tapped on the metal that lined the ship’s railing and found it to be resilient. The metal also seemed quite light for its resilience as almost the entire ship was lined with it. Even though the crew was much smaller in size than one would expect of a warship, the armour did not weigh down the ship as much as traditional metals would have in that quantity.

Why does the Lightguard not have access to this kind of equipment? Randall pondered. The Scholars had never fought the Threat head on, and yet they had access to such luxuries. That might change soon.

From what he knew, there was legitimate concern that the Threat could be present at their final destination. The previous day’s events proved that the Scholars could easily handle themselves against a horde or two, but he wasn’t confident of his own chances alone when swarmed.

Randall walked over to the boarding ramp. He perked up a little knowing he wouldn’t have to miss the mead for the next few months. He soon frowned, however, after noticing the glare of a kid in white leather. Triss cowered and immediately asked Sarva about what a damage-ridden Luminary was doing on the deck. This only served to incite Randall’s fury, however.

Even a dog gets to talk, but I don’t?! Randall screamed in his head. He then jumped down from the deck to the pier and raised the fist of his free hand to remedy that. He really didn’t like the idea of one of the foot soldiers talking so brazenly during his predicament.

A sudden chill made the Luminary pause and he turned his head to look behind to find the hooded Scholar staring at him.

Shaw slowly enunciated his words with gritted teeth. “Back. Up.”

Randall would’ve spat right there if his mask was not on. He slowly walked back up the ramp with heavy steps all while being eyed by the many brown-cloaks who supported the Scholars. He walked right up to Shaw and curled his fist. He then swung his halberd right at Shaw’s head, only for Shaw to block it with his arm.

The cut fabric of Shaw’s robe revealed a caestus underneath. He flung the halberd away and proceeded to use both of his caesti in pushing Randall down to his knees. Randall was then punched on the torso, his armour denting. The groaning Luminary fell by the ship’s railing.

Shaw put both his hands on Randall’s shoulders and quickly froze the armour against the railing with his magic. Shaw continued to discipline the Luminary by smacking Randall’s faceguard repeatedly with his caesti as the dew frosted all around them. He wasn’t satisfied until some blood dripped down beneath the helmet.

Shaw knew a Luminary was resilient enough to live through that without permanent injury so he didn’t think much of the violent treatment. Triss, on the other hand, found it to be rather brutal and stood shocked at the sight. He shivered and took a step behind Sarva.

“Aren’t you going to check up on him?” Triss asked Sarva. He didn’t know of anyone else who was a healer after all.

“And get in between the Scholars just doing their job? Triss, you do understand it’s sort of their duty to police the Lightguard, yea? Besides, he was going to punch you. Why do you care if he got beat up after that?” Sarva asked.

“That doesn’t mean he has to be beaten half to death…” Triss muttered as if knowing his argument had no substance.

“Half to death? Are you kidding? You’re the one who’s seen them in action. Be real for a second, a Luminary can take that a dozen more times at least,” Sarva replied. “And Shaw was just looking after you. It’s their job to protect us, too, you know?” He had forgotten how new Triss was to their company for a moment.

“Y-yeah. They can heal themselves, too. I just found it hard to wrap my head around… A Scholar is that much stronger than a Luminary, right,” Triss responded with an expression of embarrassment.

Sarva snorted. “Yea, lots of wrapping around your head recently, haha!”

Triss nodded in slight confusion. The joke flew over his head. He followed Sarva into the lower deck but not before giving the beat up Luminary behind him a few looks on the way.

The interior of the ship was a lot more in line with how he had imagined it to be, at least at first. As they proceeded towards the stern, more and more odd metallic pipes protruded from the walls and went into the flooring and ceiling. It wasn’t long before the pair encountered a staircase that headed further down.

They went down about four flights of stairs before they came across a hallway that clad entirely in the strange dark metal that they saw outside. Sarva proceeded to lead Triss back towards the ship’s bow on that level as they passed a few cabins. The doors were sealed with what looked like rubber.

Sarva pulled out a parchment from underneath his coat and navigated to a listing that carried the same number on it as the door of the room they ended up standing in front of. Triss peeked into it to see a few arrows in different directions listed next to the number in a sequence.

“Watch,” Sarva said. He hovered his left palm over the number plate. Mana poured out from a bracelet under his sleeve and connected with a mechanism behind the number plate. With a few motions of his hand, the mana reacted correspondingly to move the mechanism in the direction of the sequence on the parchment.

A creaking sound erupted from the door and it slightly unhinged. Sarva put his fingers through the small gap and slid the door into the wall.

“Got a good look?” Sarva asked, now a bit more mindful of Triss being new to magic as well. He walked inside and opened a window for daylight to come in. “This is going to be your room.”

Why are even doors so complicated? Triss thought it was almost a bit too odd even doors had to be operated with magic. But if what Sarva told him was true, then everyone really had access to it unlike what he believed from earlier. He also noticed that Sarva hadn’t used that bracelet to use magic before this.

Triss instinctively tried to hover his own palm over the number plate but couldn’t feel anything. He walked into and saw an array of protrusions on tiles on both the walls and ceilings. There was a bed with neatly arranged sheets. A closet, a coat hanger, and a mirror occupied the rest of the space.

“Do you have to do that every time to get in?” Triss asked.

“Not unless you lock it again, you might need a little practice first though,” Sarva said.

Seeing Triss’ weary expression, he added to it. “I’ll come get you for the next meal, rest a bit for now.”

Just as Triss sat down, an insanely loud noise emanated from the other end of the hallway. It kept rumbling and didn’t seem like it would stop soon.

“That’s not going to quiet down unless you lock it, though!” Sarva yelled to make sure Triss could hear him.

“What is that?!” Triss yelled back.

“Insomnia,” Sarva replied while sighing. He slid the door back and locked it to explain things a bit better. The noise suddenly became a lot lower in intensity, but it was still present.

Sleep would still be a bit difficult, if Triss was not as tired as he was.